The Brookhaven leader., 1887-10-27
ANAPPEAL FOR HAMILTON.
Give Him Lawyers or Give Him
Death.

! Death.
From the time when the cOr0ner's
jury first began to investigate the
great crime which has aroused the
State as nothing else has ever done in
its entire history, on through the diff
ferent stages and processes of this now
celebrated trial, we have watched
with painstaking interest the course
pursued and the line of policy adopt
ed by the sO-callcd counsel for de
fence.
Again and again have we noticed
how by their child-like simplicity and
blissful innocence of law, and how by
their foolish utterances and countless
pleas as richly ludicrOus as they were
utterly groundlcss, they have obsti-
nately continued to weave more close
~ the web of guilt around their suf-
fering client, until it would seem
that the poor man has not been defen-
dcd at all, but that all the counsel
engaged in the case have shamcfully
and cruelty resolved to prosecute t.
the bitter end this innocent man with
out even granting him the most pre-
cious constitutional right, that of hav-
ing counsel toplead his cause-to de-
fcnd him against wild crowd of pref
udiced men and hot-hcaded fanatics
who, "like wild beasts" are bowling
and thirsting for the blood of an inno-
cent victim.
Citizens of the great State of Miss
sippi, how long we ask, will you allow
your fellow citizen to be thus pcrsc-
cuted and robbed of all his chances OF
proving himself freely innocent of Il
hciHOuS crime by few men who call
themselves lawyers and pretend to be
! defending him when in deed and in
truth they are ruthlessly depriving
! him of his freedom and rendering of no
avail the legal processes of his "trium-
phant acquittal'!
viii you believe it, when we de
clare to YOU that these so-called de
PENDANTS have permitted Col Hamilton
to remain four months i'll il dirty old
Jail, crowded with unclean criminals,
in an atmosphere vitiatcd and poison
ouS, with the sewerage i'll a condition
that would require indecent words to
describe ito Yes, here he has been
and is still confined, gradually wasting
away, suffering the most intense pain
from bullet that has been allowed
to remain so long in his arm as to
cause the rotation of it to he attended
with untold agony and probably to
destroy the use of it altogether.
Think of such a man as Col. Hamil-
ton being treated so inhumanly by his
pretended friends s-think of his being
denied even the privilege of having
surgeon to extract the ball fIom his
painful arm, and being deprived un-
der such circumstances of his inalien-
able, God given right to have Suffi-
cicnt amount of pure air, and pure
water and all that is necessary 10
build up and restore to health his now
fast wasting form; and that, too, when
the law, under snch circmmstances,n mot
only allows but requires the court, the
Board of Supervisors, or the Sheriff to
take the prisoner from the unhealthy
place and give him all the medical
skill necessary to relieve him of his
suffering. But these counsel, with the
innocence that has characterized them
through the trial, failed to see that
the law was in favor of their client
who has been made to suffer so long
and so intensely on account of their
ignorance.
But the half has not vet been told:
In the last plea for anew habeaS corpus
trial, the first ground on which coun-
sci based their pleas was, that Col
Hamilton had wife and children and
business interests that required his
personal attention. Ye gods! isitpos-
sible that a man who has wife and
children has been kept in Jail this
long, long while? Yes, it is sad but
true. More than that, it is claimed
by these lawyers ~ that they can
prove almost to a demonstration that
Col. Hamilton has large amount o.
State property that he would like to
look after; and notwithstanding this
all-important fact, they have but late
lv made it known to the court and to
the public. Why in the name OF JUS
tice and common sense did they not
bring this out at the very beginning,
so that the court could with justice
have granted their client bail and sent
him on his way rejoicing.
But the second ground named in
the plea is that Hamilton is an honor
able man and did not deny that he
killed GambreI. FellOw-citizens, the
first part of this prOpsitoiOn will
doubtless be more startling news to
you than any you have yet head, but
doubt it not, for those fellows will